• How can I find patients like me?

  There are many ways to find patients like you. The Patients page lets you search for patients by condition, treatment, symptom, location, age, and other profile characteristics. Or, visit any report page to see a list of patients for that treatment or symptom.

• A general introduction to the Forum

  The forum is a great way to find information about symptoms, treatments, and living with your condition while building relationships with other PatientsLikeMe members. Web developer Adam Darowski shares the basics of the PatientsLikeMe forum in the A General Introduction to the Forum screencast. (Feb 1 2010)

• What is the Forum Code of Conduct?

  Our Forum has a Code of Conduct which states that ideal PatientsLikeMe members:

  • Ask questions to help learn about their condition
  • Welcome newcomers to the community
  • Keep your health profile up-to-date, such as disease progress, symptoms, and treatments
  • Share their opinion with others in a considerate way
  • Respect confidential information and don't transmit other members' information outside the PatientsLikeMe community
  • Enjoy healthy debate on the forum but stick to the argument rather than making comments directed at an individual user
  • Check in on other members, make sure they're OK and help them to keep their profiles accurate and up-to-date
  • Share personal experiences without trying to provide medical advice
  • Give feedback to the PatientsLikeMe Team about potential improvements, questions, or comments about the site

  You can access the Forum Code of Conduct by clicking on the "Forum Code of Conduct" link in the top right corner of every page in the forum:

  

• Who can read my forum posts? (Can I read all forum posts?)

  In the spirit of openness, any member of the PatientsLikeMe community can read any forum post, although only the rooms you’ve joined are easily accessible from your forum home page. You can join other rooms as a patient (by adding a relevant condition to your profile), caregiver, or guest on the forum directory.

  If you happen to come across a link to another forum room, you will receive this prompt:

  

• Can I post articles or other content that I didn't write in the forum?

  We encourage members to share relevant news stories, journal articles, or blog posts in the forum. Please include references to the information you provide when it is not original content.

• Can I modify or erase my forum posts?

  Yes, you can modify or erase any of your forum posts at any time by clicking ‘Edit’ underneath your post. A post cannot be blank, but you may put any filler text in the text field (e.g., “deleted” or “amended”).

  

• How do I post an image?

  To post an image click on the little picture of a green tree located between the link button and the smiley face in the tool bar. That will take you to a pop up window where you can browse for and locate the image you'd like to post. Once you've selected it, hit upload and the picture should appear in your post.

  

   

• How do I join another forum room?

  To join a forum room, visit the ‘Forum’ tab on the top of the page. Under the search field, click on ‘See more forum rooms’ to be taken to the forum directory. Here, you can join additional forum rooms as a patient, caregiver, or guest. To join as a patient, you'll need to add a relevant condition. When joining as a caregiver, you have the option to enter the username of the patient you are a caregiver for (if your patient is in the PatientsLikeMe community). If you are simply interested in a room or have some related symptoms or treatments being discussed there, you can join as a guest.

  

• How do I leave a forum room?

  To leave a forum room, visit the ‘Forum’ tab on the top of the page. Under the search field, click on ‘See more forum rooms’ to be taken to the forum directory. Here, you can leave a forum room.

• How do I switch forum rooms?

  To switch between forum rooms, you can visit your forum homepage by clicking on the ‘Forum’ tab and click on the ‘View’ button to go to the room you’d like to visit.

  Alternatively, if you’re already in a forum room, you can click ‘Switch Room’ on the top of the page to see a selection of the rooms you’ve joined.

• Forum Tags, Filters and Search

  Curious about some of the advanced features of the PatientsLikeMe forum like tags, filters, and search? Web developer Adam Darowski will give you an overview in the Getting the most out of the PatientsLikeMe Forum screencast. (Feb 18 2010)

• Help, I think I received spam at PatientsLikeMe!

  If you receive a private message that you consider abusive or spam (this happens very rarely, but just in case) please click on the "report spam" link on the message you received. This will send a copy of the message to multiple PatientsLikeMe staff members so that we can address the issue as soon as possible.

   

• What are reminders?

  Reminders are sent to your email address to make it easier to remember when to update your profile data (eg., Quality of Life, InstantMe, Treatments and Symptoms) at PatientsLikeMe. You can mange them on your Account page.

• How do I change the settings for my reminders?

  You can turn email reminders on or off, and control how often they are sent to you within the “Email Notifications” section of your Account page.

• What are subscriptions and how can I get started?

  Subscriptions let you easily see when members, forum topics, forum tags or treatments that you’re interested in are updated.  Those updates can be seen on your profile under the “Feeds” tab in the section called subscriptions.

  Learn more about subscribing to members.

  

  Learn more about subscribing to topics and tags.

  

  Learn more about subscribing to treatments.

  

• What are treatment reports?

  Treatment Reports can help you:

  • Understand the experience of taking a treatment, including what the side-effects are and how people manage those side-effects
  • Learn how to cope with taking a drug (with tips and advice from other members and links to relevant forum threads)
  • Find and contact other patients like you who use a certain treatment (such as people who report the same side effects or people who take it for the same reason)

   To view a treatment report, just click on the treatment name anywhere on the website. To browse or search through all of the treatments in our database, visit the Treatments tab.

  You can also check out the Updated Treatment Reports screencast by web developer Adam Darowski for a tour of these reports, (Nov 19 2009)

• How do I evaluate a treatment?

  Check out the PatientsLikeMe Treatment Evaluations screencast by web developer Adam Darowski for an overview of how to enter treatment evaluations and to find out what some of the benefits of sharing your treatment experience include.  (Jul 20 2010)

• Can PatientsLikeMe help a member in a medical emergency or crisis?

  No. PatientsLikeMe does not provide medical advice or intervention. In case of medical emergency or crisis we recommend members call 911, their doctor or health care provider, or refer to our crisis resources.

   

• How can I find caregivers on the site?

  You can view everyone who is a member of a CareTeam by clicking on 'See Caregivers' on the bottom of the 'Patients' tab.

  

  If someone joins a forum room as a caregiver and posts in that room, their nugget will display with a caregiver badge below it, like this:

  

Need more help? Email support@patientslikeme.com